John Richard Kasich was born in the industrial town of McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. He studied political science at Ohio State University where, through clever maneuvering, good fortune, or both, he managed to convince the University's President to personally deliver a letter written by Kasich to Richard Nixon, then-current occupant of the White House. Expressing admiration and respect for the sitting President, the letter impressed Nixon, who agreed to meet with Kasich in person while Kasich was still a freshman.

A Republican throughout his career, Kasich espouses strong conservative values, and has generally enacted them as Governor. When first elected, he prioritized eliminating Ohio's multibillion-dollar budget shortfall without raising taxes. He signed a balanced budget into law in 2011, and in fact, he has cut taxes in Ohio several times. He is anti-abortion, and signed a controversial bill placing restrictions on the procedure and women's access to it. He also strongly favored a labor law that would have imposed harsh strictures on collective bargaining rights in his state, but when that matter went to a popular vote, the proposition was defeated with 61% opposition.

On the other hand, Kasich has angered many conservatives with his treatment of Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. While saying he is opposed to most of the law and that he favors the “repeal and replace” goal of the Republican party, he has used increased federal funding made available by the law to strengthen Medicaid in Ohio. Tea Party activists have strongly denounced him for this, and many within the Tea Party refuse to support him because of it.

Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich told MSNBC's Chris Matthews "the court has ruled" on same-sex marriage and he would not advocate for any efforts to ban it, even though he supports traditional marriage.

“When it comes to winning home state primaries, John Kasich is in a far superior position when compared to Senator Rubio,” Kasich’s campaign wrote on its blog, which featured three old polls from January that showed Trump destroying Rubio in Florida.

Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich sat down with "The Late Show" host Stephen Colbert on Friday to defend his stance against legalizing marijuana just days after Ohio voted against a statewide decriminalization of medical and recreational marijuana.

we should do nothing because the cost of dealing with global warming is far higher than the potential damage. We should perhaps sign on to some international agreements, but make only minimal financial commitments for now.

Belief in God is what America was founded upon, so religious organizations, or praying in school, does not violate the separation of church and state. Religious institutions should be involved in welfare or education.